Education: Clearing the Structure Away

Longer school days. Stiffer graduation requirements. Better teaching of
basics. Higher pay for teachers. A barrage of recommendations for
improving American public schools has been released over the past year
by commissions, consultants and critics alike. This week a major new
report by a respected reformer offers the most radical proposals yet.
In Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School
(Houghton Mifflin; $16.95), Theodore Sizer argues that the nation's
high schools are rigid and out of date, and he calls for a drastic
reorganization of the curriculum and school day....